Advanced Placement students get early push

San Diego 
Andre Garner is anxious about starting his sophomore year at Mission Bay High School in September, in part because he'll take two Advanced Placement courses — biology and math.

“I'm most worried about keeping up with all the reading,” said Andre, 15. “There is pressure. People think that African-Americans, like myself, are not into school — that they are just here to make friends. I am here to break that stereotype.”

To help him get a head start on the challenging course load, Andre is among 455 students from the San Diego Unified School District who enrolled in an AP boot camp of sorts this summer. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, it's part of a program designed to prepare students — especially minorities and the poor who historically are underrepresented in AP classes — for the demands of AP and International Baccalaureate classes.

“We're giving them experience and exposure to the rigor of AP courses at a slower pace to get them ready for what awaits them in the fall,” said Don Mitchell, who oversees the AP Incentive Grant Program. “We get into study skills, note-taking and organizational skills. But we also do field trips and engaging projects that hopefully show them that learning at this level can be fun and interesting and cool.”

At Mission Bay High, Andre and about 30 other students recently researched, wrote and edited articles about water issues, the environment and infectious disease for a class magazine.

“I'm writing about ebola,” said Jeniffer Farias, 14, referring to the potentially deadly virus that emanated from Africa. “It's fascinating, and it really changes your perspective on health care and other stuff.”

It may not be obvious how writing about ebola will help Jeniffer in AP Spanish in the fall. But she's picked up tangible tips, such as using index cards in studying and the art of writing a conclusion to an essay.

The biggest obstacle students face in IB or AP classes is a lack of organizational skills and reading comprehension, said John Villarreal, a Mission Bay High teacher who is an instructor at the summer program. Writing such articles helps train them in those skills, he said.

“We have to do so much in the classroom to cover the deficits they come in with, while also covering the standards of a subject,” Villarreal said.